chicago magazine – ROBERT LOERZEL

Where Chicago’s 1919 race riot began

The landscape along Lake Michigan on Chicago’s South Side has utterly changed over the past century. If you’re looking for the beaches where Chicago’s race riot erupted on July 27, 1919, you won’t find them. As I was researching a history of the riot for Chicago magazine, I searched for maps, documents, and details that… Continue reading Where Chicago’s 1919 race riot began

In Chicago magazine: The 1919 race riot

Blood in the Streets A hundred years ago, Chicago experienced the worst spasm of racial violence in the city’s history. Here’s how the riot unfolded, in the words of those who lived it. Read my article in the August 2019 issue of Chicago magazine. (Illustration by Michelle Thompson)

Chicago’s Top Chefs (Circa 1900)

Chicago Magazine, June 27, 2018 — From epic game dinners (including ibex ham and juniper-soaked bear) to lobster palaces to revered railroad cuisine that took advantage of food available along the journey, Chicago chefs were pioneers long before the city was a food destination. Read the story.

The History of the Solo Cup, From the South Side to Star Wars

Chicago Magazine website, May 17, 2018 — The ubiquitous plastic vessel has come a long way: from South Side immigrant inventors to big business in Lake Forest, a Toby Keith hit to syndicated TV specials starring its inventor’s wife—and now a galaxy far, far away. Read the story.

Q&A with Steve James

Chicago magazine, March 2017 — Read my Q&A with filmmaker Steve James, part of an issue on the theme “Why We Love Chicago.” Photo: Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune

‘Breakfast at Ina’s’ at Chicago Film Festival

Chicago Magazine, October 2015 — Ina Pinkney can’t leave her house in Buena Park without being recognized. “There isn’t a time when somebody doesn’t say, ‘I miss your restaurant’?” she says. “Grocery store, Staples, the Apple Store—I mean, just anywhere I go.” As the owner of a bakery and three popular eateries over a span of… Continue reading ‘Breakfast at Ina’s’ at Chicago Film Festival

Film review: ‘Hogtown’

Photo: 9:23 Films

Chicago magazine, February 2015 — Go See Hogtown, a Murder Mystery in 1919 Chicago. Our 30-second review of the immersive movie, which screens this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Read my review in Chicago magazine. Photo: 9:23 Films

The 10 best Chicago documentaries

Photo: Kartemquin Films

Chicago magazine, February 2015 — Life Itself, Steve James’s tribute to Roger Ebert, comes out on DVD February 17, a good excuse to catch up on other great Chicago documentaries. Read more in Chicago magazine. Photo: Kartemquin Films

Michael Abramson’s photos of 1970s Chicago nightclubs

Chicago magazine, October 2014 — As a graduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the late 1970s, photographer Michael Abramson spent a lot of time in clubs with names like Perv’s House and Pepper’s Hideout… Read more — and see some of Abramson’s photos — in Chicago magazine. Photo by Michael Abramson

Failed Chicago transit plans

Chicago magazine, August 2014 — Failed Dreams: Chicago’s transit history is littered with grand plans that never quite got off the ground. Read my story in Chicago magazine.